December 19, 2010



This is what we have been up to this week. 

Reading in Justin's room.



Santa puppets

 

Busy with trains, blocks, and play food, and dinosaurs.

Snowman gift tags for goodies we are giving people.

Wreaths

Painting the stockings was fun, but we had some frustration issues with cotton balls getting stuck on our hands while we were gluing them on.  Didn't have that problem with the beards.  Go figure.

I think their Christmas trees turned out nicely.  They were topped off by stars that Grandma sent.

Ryan thinks it is hysterical to listen to Grandma read to him in this Hallmark book.  I had to put the book up high and require only supervised readings because he was taking it everywhere with him and being less than careful.

Sorting bugs and counting them.



More bug fun.



December 6, 2010

Justin (and therefore Ryan) have been really into drawing and coloring lately.  The papers are quickly forgotten and soon after disposed of in the trash.  They haven't been anything special in my eyes or the boys', so out they go!

Our "school" has become very loose and flexible  We have been playing a lot with legos, blocks, and Thomas trains.  We have been busy outside with the water table, dinosaurs, bubbles, and chalk.  Rob put in some grass and the boys are loving it.

Soon we should have some Christmas projects to post.  Going through my school stuff I found that I had more Kwanzaa and Hanukkah stuff than Christmas stuff.  Oops!  Fine to have a balance in school, but I think we will stick to Christmas crafts this year since we don't have any friends here who celebrate Kwanzaa or Hanukkah.

Ornaments from Michael's Crafts that Justin colored.

Christmas story with the Fisher Price nativity set.  Looks like Mary is missing again.  Sigh.

This advent calendar has a scripture to read and an activity (ie, show your brother you care by sharing) for each day in December.

Extend the Christmas pattern with foam beads from Oriental Trading Company.

Justin likes to help me wrap presents and then give Ryan hints about what he will be receiving for Christmas.  Ryan is oblivious.

Some of the books we have been reading.

More books.  Ryan has been into Chicka Chicka Boom Boom so we tried Chicka Chicka 123.  Not as big of a hit for him, but Justin is amused.

Chasing bubbles from the bubble train and drawing with chalk in the shade.

Running through the sprinkler on our new grass. :)

Following directions to decorate the tree.  Justin complained that I started too many sentences with "glue".

November 15-19, 2010

We have dropped the structured school and are mostly playing and doing Thanksgiving activities.  The boys LOVE to color/draw and have been having a blast with their Lego DUPLO blocks.  Works for me!

Justin tried to write water bottle (WD BDL) for what he is thankful for.  Our thankful chain gets longer everyday!  I thought it was sweet the day he was thankful for MOM.  He said he thought that I needed a present and that would make me happy.  He then told me that he also wanted to write something that was short because he didn't want to write a lot and MOM is only three letters. 

Yep, he was saying cheese.  Adorable, huh?

Justin wearing his headband.

Two of this week's books.  I can't find the others.  The boys have gotten fast at running off with them.  They LOVE the Pigeon books.  I think a couple more might be coming their way this Christmas.

They loved making these.  Ryan loves any project that involves gluing.

Me with the alphabet.

November 8-12, 2010

This week we continued with our normal routine and our November thankful chain.  Rob got Veteran's Day off of work so we got to spend time together running errands and some time outdoors.  Here are some of this week's highlights, if that is what you would call them.

Justin told me he made me an umbrella.  It won't exactly keep me dry, but I was impressed.

We made these turkeys.  I did the cutting for this project, but the boys did their own painting and Justin folded his own turkey legs.  He thinks he is pretty clever to be able to do the "zig zag" paper.

Justin showed this to me and I said, "Ape-o?"  He said that it was an apple, but that I couldn't eat it.  I said, "Oh, you wrote apple for me."  He said," Mommy, when you say it, it has an "L' on the end!"

We are going to do a K-W-L chart about turkeys.  We took some pics of them this week when we were at the petting zoo.

Ryan and Justin made their pilgrim boys.  I think they are adorable.  Justin cut out his own black body and hat.  I cut out the other pieces because he tends to get frustrated or lose interest if there is too much.  He did the gluing all by himself. 

Evidently Justin thinks this will make a perfect birthday card for Papa.  He also thinks he needs a bigger paper so he can write his name.  There isn't enough space on the name line.

Completely independent.  Obviously still not great coloring, but he gets it.

Some of this week's books.

More books.  Ryan loves the ants book and Justin loves the pigeon book.

Justin working on the worksheet asking him to color the piece of pie with fewer pecans in each set of two.  He then decided to add some of his own pecans so they would be equal. 

Week of November 1 through 5

Wasn't feeling well this week, so we had really flexible school.  We did calendar activities, read some books, and did a lot of coloring instead of more involved projects.  In addition to Thanksgiving books we have been doing some books that are songs familiar to Ryan and variations on those songs.  We also got a few more Halloween books in the mail, so even though it is November, we read them.  Justin thought Goodnight, Goon! was very funny.  Ryan enjoyed The Seals on the Bus and The Spooky Wheels on the Bus.  How can you go wrong with that song, no matter what you put into it?



No, I have NO idea why this picture is sideways.  It isn't on my picture viewer or my camera.  Sigh.



Justin made a thank you letter saying what he liked best about the Halloween party.  He made his J backwards, but when I asked him about it, he told me that I still knew it was a J even if it was backwards. 

This week we celebrated 100 consecutive days without a day or night toileting accident.  Here is Justin's take on a 100 chart.  We talked about the number 100 and made party hats and special cupcakes. :)

Justin was excited to show me that he can write just like I can.  He showed me the two words he wrote outside using sidewalk chalk.

We also made a "Where Am I?" farm book.  Mostly coloring, but Justin enjoyed reading it too.

We have started a chain of things we are thankful for.  Each day we write something we are thankful for on a link and add it to the chain.  I saw a really cute project of someone adding feathers to a turkey.  That would be fun, but our chain is started and easier. 

I think next week might be a bit slow too.  I am still miserable with this cold and if I can keep the kids occupied doing something besides school, I think I will take advantage of it.  We do need to visit the petting zoo turkeys though!

Jack and the Beanstalk

Oops!  I thought I had posted this, but it seems to say "draft" in my little dashboard window.  Anyway, we made a beanstalk out of packing materials.  It was Justin's idea and I think it is cute.  Definitely very easy and inexpensive!

We also made a magic harp.  Not as cute, but a good story prop.  We already had a hen (stuffed animal) and a "golden" Easter egg.  Magic harp didn't last long, but the beanstalk is still up!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Thursday was a busy day for us!  We made some frosting for our sugar cookies.  Since they were pumpkin shaped, we experimented with red and yellow food coloring.  Amazing!  Those colors mixed make orange when you use food coloring just like when you use paint.  How did Mommy know that? I had planned ahead and made the boys smaller sugar cookies to frost.  There was a lot more eating than frosting going on on their part of the table.

We did a pumpkin cutting activity (fold pumpkin in half and cut only on black line) and a sequence the 5 pumpkin sheet.  These are Ryan's.  He obviously needed assistance, but he had fun and is very proud of his accomplishments.

 Justin did this sort by size sheet.  I think the large and medium are pretty close to the same size.  He initially made a mistake when sorting, but caught it and was able to self-correct before he glued them in place.  He wouldn't have been able to do that if I hadn't insisted that he sort first, THEN glue.  He didn't want to break it down into steps, but I knew that it was probably a good idea for him to do that.

 Justin also did the color the shapes the correct color.  He went through and did all triangles first, then circles, etc.  I thought he would do one pumpkin at a time.  He also added corn for the scarecrow.  He definitely will still have plenty of skills to master when he starts school.  He likes to color, but not in the lines. 

Friday the boys were so excited for the Embassy Halloween party that we voted to skip school.  AFN was showing some Halloween cartoons and the boys were into watching them, talking about the party, and making sure their costumes were ready.  Halloween has been fun.  I don't know if we will enjoy the Thanksgiving activities as much.  I will do my best.